Air Force’s remarkable five-game turnaround was recognized Tuesday by the Mountain West Conference with Troy Calhoun selected as the coach of the year and receiver/tailback Chad Hall the offensive player of the year.
In his first season at Air Force, Calhoun guided the Falcons (9-3, 6-2 MWC) to the Dec. 31 Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, Texas. Earlier in the day, Calhoun received coach of the year honors for Region 5 from the American Football Coaches Association.
Hall set academy records for career all-purpose yards at 4,019, and for a season with 2,504.
“At our place, you never really look at rewards coming in the form of individual recognition,” Calhoun said.
Hall was the only player in NCAA Division I-A to lead his team in both rushing yards (1,415) and receiving yards (488).
“The main thing was our team getting nine wins,” Hall said. “As far as I’m concerned, my linemen deserve this as much as I do.”
UNLV’s Beau Bell was defensive player of the year.
Air Force linebacker John Rabold was first-team all-conference along with cornerback Carson Bird. Hall was joined on the first-team offense by center Blaine Guenther.
Wyoming defensive back Julius Stinson made the first team. For the first time in its Western Athletic Conference/MWC history, Colorado State went back-to-back years without a first-team selection.
Spreading the wealth.
The MWC will benefit from the Western Athletic Conference placing a team in the BCS. The WAC gets $6 million with Hawaii meeting Georgia in the Sugar Bowl and $3 million will be shared among the MWC, Conference-USA and Sun Belt.
Search is on.
CSU is a week into its search for a football coach to replace Sonny Lubick, with a Monday deadline for applications. Department spokesperson Zak Gilbert said no hiring is expected before Monday, if then. Athletic director Paul Kowalczyk is a one-man search committee and has not commented on his progress.
Kowalczyk is known to have interest in Southern Illinois coach Jerry Kill, with whom he worked in Carbondale. Kill’s team is competing in the Division I-AA playoffs. SIU athletic director Mario Moccia said Tuesday there has been no request from CSU for permission to talk to Kill, who has declined comment while his team is in the playoffs.
Inside: Mountain West all-conference list. Page 9D
Staff writer Natalie Meisler contributed to this report.
Irv Moss: 303-954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com
